What do you do on Christmas Eve?

[SilkenTofu]

What does tour Christmas Even look like? I am thinking of sorting out an activity but can't think what.

Get home from work.
Shower.
Pjs on.
Veg out on settee with a mug of tea and biscuits and look forward to a day off.

I will be at work. After work I will be going home to do various bits of wrapping and baking and prep vegetables / lay table for Christmas Day. Supper will usually be a Chinese takeaway. I will then go for a quiet bath with a cup of tea before settling into bed for an early night. I don't actually cope that well with Christmas and try to avoid as much stress and fuss as possible.

Walk the legs off the dog in the morning with friends and theirs. So shell be good on xmas day.

Pub lunch and few lazy drinks in afternoon. Village pub so see everyone there. Everyone whos back in the village over xmas makes point of going there xmas eve.

Go home do bit food prep. Get ready for party that evening.

Xmas eve party at friends.

Church.

Then usually have a panic about wrapping presents and do a rubbish job half asleep.

Walk the dog in the forest - there are alway lots of people about and there is a lovely atmosphere.
Home and walk to the pub with DS and parents (single mum) and meet friends for a long leisurely lunch and plenty of fizz
Get home, pjs on and a movie before an earlyish night.

Tend to have homemade ham and cheese for a snack.

Best day of the year for us.

We visit family all morning and hand out presents to nieces, nephews and all.

Then it's home for lunch and a film, then we all head out to christingle. It's magical in the candle lit church.

We get a Chinese on the way home.

Then it's bath time, new pjs, Santa's treats, hang their Santa sacks out and into bed giddy as kippers.

After settling all the children down, my husband and I have a drink and chill out watching Christmas specials of 'Only fools and horses' then make sure the children are asleep before putting their gifts out and going to bed ourselves.

I cannot wait.

i get up at the crack of dawn to fetch our festive feast from m and s (7am collection always!!) We have a special goodbye Elfie breakfast and the kids have their Xmas eve boxes.
We then go to a local theme park (Twinlakes in Melton Mowbray in case you are Midlands and fancy it) we see santa, do all the rides, soft play, animals etc then at 4pm santa and all the elves assemble and do a bit of a meet and greet and then we wave him.off on a firetruck. Once he is over the hill and out of sight they set off fireworks to symbolise him taking off. It's absolutely magical, we've been doing it since the kids were 2 and 4, they are 9 and 11 now and still love it!! We then go home for a buffet tea, put stuff out for santa and watch a movie. It's the best day of the year by far!!

I loved Christmas Eve when I was a child - for the obvious reasons, but also because of the cozy feel and that sense of love. My parents are no longer with us which makes those memories seem all the more poignant.

Now we spend time with DH family, and when they come to us the day looks like this:

Lazy start to the morning, although I usually spend some time tidying and cleaning up a bit.
Walk, if the weather is okay to local park / woods.
Home for lunch.
Nativity play / carol service at church
Home, light fire, compulsory viewing of 'The Snowman' (glad I'm not the only one), and Carols from Kings with mulled wine / fruit juice.
Evening buffet - cheese board, nice bread, pizza / quiche, supermarket party food, sausage rolls, fruit, smoked salmon followed by mince pies, gingerbread, nice biscuits.
Hot chocolate with NORAD for those who want.
DCs to sleep (fingers crossed) and adults gradually drift off to bed late evening.
I then set the table for breakfast and curl up on the sofa watching the embers die in the fire, lights on the tree. Sometimes I'll watch nonsense on TV (Kirsty's handmade Christmas to remind me of all the things that I never have time to do!) or sometimes carols / midnight Mass etc.

Sort stockings out for DCs, then off to bed. I never want to go to sleep on Christmas Eve!

Genuinely one of my favourite days!

8am DS and I collect the order from the farm shop and local bakery (stopping for a cheeky coffee!)
10am home to find DH making bacon on toast for us all.

Lazy morning prepping for the next day

1pm taxi into town for lunch with friends and their DC's (13 of us with DC's from young adult to 5). Share wine and exchange cards as no one is ever organised before!

4.30pm squiffy wander around M&S buying things we don't need but have yellow sticker bargain written on them plus chocolate.

Taxi home. New pj's on then a Movie and bed! Pop out stockings and santa gifts (wrapped under stairs to be done in minutes).

Clean house
Pick up Christmas food order
Set dining room table & any other preparation
Christmas movies
Open Christmas Eve boxes - pjs, chocolate & nice wine or champagne in them

Have my grown up DDs home for Christmas. Make chestnut chocolate log for Xmas Eve dinner, and make plum/ginger and apricot/chestnut stuffings ready for the turkey. Listen to Carols from Kings. Have smoked salmon, asparagus and champagne dinner.
Take the whole family to the Watchnight service at church, sing beautiful traditional carols and share the sense of wonder and mystery as midnight strikes and we celebrate the birth of Christ by hugging all our fellow worshippers and sharing the peace. Walk home through the frosted village street to look at our stockings by the fire, then going off to bed. Perfect.

Normally, DD comes into work with me "for the morning" (we tend to leave by about 12), and we then used to meet DH in town (my office is 5 minutes from the main shopping street). Head into M&S for any last minute bits and pieces, including DD's birthday cake. Any other necessary shopping (usually all done by then), maybe some cheese or Leonidas chocs might be needed.

We'd then all go for lunch in a coffee shop - coffe, sambo, maybe some cake. And head for home by about 2.30ish.

DH's office now require him to go in on Christmas Eve, and DD wants to continue the new tradition started last year of a Christmas Eve swim in the local yacht club in aid of a homeless charity (there are hot showers there afterwards, and mulled wine, so its not so much of a hardship!). So we will do that rather than town (DH's office is closeby to the club, it's only me in town). So we will probably get lunch locally instead.

Once home, we crack on with the preparations for 25th. Peeling potatoes and veg, making cookies for Santa, DH's annual phonecall to DMIL to remind himself how to cook sausage meat for the stuffing!! Some cleaning and organizing, maybe some wrapping of presents, and quite likely chatting with neighbours over a glass of wine or maybe getting to sit and watch a movie for a while. DD often disappears up the road to her BFF (or they start thumping around in her room). Quite a relaxed afternoon, generally.

Dinner is a smorgasbord type buffet - lots of different cured meats (parma ham, braseola, spiced beef etc) and salamis, pate, cooked prawns etc. Carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, olives, hummus. And some nice crusty bread and some crackers. We also open the Christmas cheese board. Everyone picks what they want for themselves.

Then we have the youngest light the Christmas candle and we remember the highs and lows of the year just finishing, and those no longer with us. The Christmas Eve Hamper is produced, with new PJs for all, and lush bath bombs for DD and I as the main items, and her stocking and plastic Santa plate. She lays out her stocking, and the cookies/milk/carrot for Santa and the Reindeer before she goes off for her bath and fresh pjs, comes back down for hot chocolate and then we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in bed as the bedtime story.

DH and I enjoy a quiet glass of wine and head to bed relatively early before the chaos of the following day. It's a much deserved quiet and relatively relaxing day after what is usually a manic 6-8 weeks before then between work and other things going on.

Love Xmas eve and always book annual leave. I'll start with prepping veg for the next day. Will take kids to see Santa and then to children's church service. Dh will probably stay behind for cleaning. Will then pick up the turkey, beef and gammon and go home to prepare a buffet for Xmas eve party with extended family. After the party is finished I'll do last minute wrapping/ peeling/ prep then hopefully attend midnight mass alone if I'm not too drunk

I'll pop to the High Road with my friend. We go for 'last minute' bits but really we'll have a sneaky lunch in a nice restaurant with a bottle of fizz In the evening my sister and nephew come to stay the night and we have a takeaway and watch a Christmas movie. My DDs 12 & 16 like to sort out the presents under the tree ready for the morning. DH peels the potatoes and prepares the veg for the next day.

Get up early to collect food orders from the butcher and M&S

Clean/tidy for guests the next day.

Bake Christmas cookies and mince pies with the children

Wrap any gifts not yet done.

Prep advance veg/sauces etc for the next day

Set the table for Christmas dinner

Go to church for the Christingle service.

Hang stockings

Send the kids to bed and then wait until they are sleeping (much harder now they are older!) to creep about with presents.

Bed

DH will be at work until lunch, I've booked it off (ha!). The dc will help with food prep in the morning then we'll change the beds (full house clean takes place day before). A Christmas Eve box will magically arrive at some point containing new PJs, hot chocolate, gingerbread and bath bombs. Dh will come home and we watch Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas, buffet tea, baths, PJs, we put out Santa and Rudolph's treats and stockings and read 'The Night Before Christmas' to the dc in bed. Once dh and I have put out the presents we'll have a Baileys and some snacks while watching a comedy Christmas special on TV. I love Christmas Eve.

I am working for the first time in 10 years! So I will be home at 4:30, DH is off with the kids so he will be doing all the prepping, then when I get home I will probably look at the damage done and try to redress it!

Takeaway for dinner I think, reindeer dust, hopefully no more presents to wrap. It would be nice to settle down and watch a movie with popcorn and hot chocolate.

We don't have a tradition where we do the same thing every year. This year we are having DHs family over for lunch as we want a day to ourselves on xmas day. We'll have a big roast since we won't be having one on the big day and do crackers etc.

Then in the evening we'll probably end up wrapping presents as we always leave it until the last minute!

Usually starts off pretty slow. Just chilling in pjs watching tv or kids play video games whilst DH and I mentally prepare ourselves for the days ahead

Usually late morning we'll go for a walk with my friend and her kids (if they decide to join us, they're 15 & 13 whereas my kids are 9,7,6 so can't blame them if they don't come). We'll walk across the local common which really is a rural beauty and it finishes next to the town high street. We'll go in to a cafe for some lunch, warm drinks and then walk back.

Back home I'll do some baking with the kids, dh will probably sleep

Finally it'll be a movie, early dinner, the elves will deliver new PJs, bathe the kiddies and then hopefully get them to bed early. We'll then shower, get pressies downstairs, retrieve stockings to fill and watch some tv whilst drinking champagne and setting out gifts.

Finally an early night for us as kids (read DH) wake up at stupid o'clock.

We usually do an early trip to the supermarket for the last few bits at 7am, followed by breakfast in a cafe. Now the boys are older they opt out of this. Collect the turkey from the farm. Do lots of prep for the next day, such as veg, and usually an extra pudding, boys lay the table.

In the afternoon we may go for a walk or go to Church, occasionally the cinema. In the evening we have Chinese nibbles and duck with pancakes, watch tv and track Santa on NORAD. Boys put out their stockings and write to Santa.

Presents already wrapped so just need to fill stockings, might wait till the morning to do this as 17 and 20 year olds stay up too late but like a lie in!

We (just me and DH, no kids) will be having a fry up for breakfast.

We both break up on 21st so will have had a few days at home already.

We’ll head to DH’s family mid morning to deliver presents.

Then about 3.30/4.00 we’ll head to my parents for hot pork sandwiches, mini sausages and hot sausage rolls. This year we have decided to then head to our local members club around 6.00pm for a couple of drinks then attend the local carol concert at 7.30pm.

We’ll be back at my parents sometime around 9pm I imagine, we’ll probably have a drink with them then head home to cosy on the sofa for an hour before bed.

I love Christmas Eve.

My DCs will be 5 and 2 this year and me and my mum will take them to the pantomime in the afternoon then it’s home early bath and new pjs and stocking hanging! Well then before bed sprinkle the reindeer food outside once the Dcs are in bed I’ll crack open the Baileys and spent god knows how long trying to put the last minute toys together from Santa that don’t get wrapped two prams this year and then fall into bed about 1am to be woken again by 6! But I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way

Late Morning DH goes to Tesco to see what they've reduced and get last minute perishables. PM prep veg , stuff turkey,or capon. Evening, last minute wrapping, later suggest we go to midnight mass, get shot down so collapse on the sofa, watch film and then midnight mass. Bed

So boring but usually there's only one 3 of us and we're all adults

We always have a German Christmas.
St Nicholas will have visited on the 6th December to leave a couple of small gifts and some chocolate coins for the good children.
That's it really until the week of heiligen Abend.
When I say that's it, I mean aside from the baking and doing an online grocery order.
The tree and decorations go up 3-5 days before.
On the day before, collect the fresh stuff that I've ordered
The day itself starts with a lie in and a very light breakfast.
Late lunch with cheeseboard, home baked ham, crackers etc. I also light the fire in the sitting room.
Then I prepare dinner. A smoked fish starter (dad smokes his own salmon most years), 4 rib of beef, homemade profiteroles and the cheeseboard.
My oldest son works for a wine merchant so he sorts out the drinks 🍸🥂🍷😜.
After dinner we go into sitting room, I light the candles on the tree and we do presents 🎁.
After that we play our family games, Scattergories or Mapominoes.

DH goes to work, because the boss sends them home about 11 once they've done Secret Santa and eaten the mince pies, but pays them for the whole day. DD and I will probably decorate the Christmas cake and chill. Might go to church for the the crib service if I think she'll handle the slightly late night. We're going to ILs for Christmas dinner, so I won't have any preparation to do this year. The evening will probably involve cheese and biscuits, wine and chocolate. I'll have to drink whatever DD wants to leave out for Santa.

Exercise to tire kids, baking, wrapping and a good family film. Dh often at work so it’s often a bit fraught in our house as I try to do too much. (My own fault)